Fall Is Fast Approaching

    Time flew by once again, and suddenly we had no more tomatoes or marigolds for sale in the bedding plant section.  Sweet corn and lima bean seed are no more in demand.  People are buying fall items such as turnips, kale, peas and spinach.  Onions will be arriving soon.  Calls for winter grain rye,  and Crimson clover are coming in as folks begin to think of green manure crops to put their gardens to bed for the winter, alas subsiding to battle weariness of drought gardening.

    Anyone who has a tulip poplar tree has probably been showered with leaves within the last two weeks, leading to a July raking of the lawn.  As dry as our region has been, you pretty much have to rake because you're sure not chopping up the leaves with the lawn mower.  Look for other trees such as flowering cherries and dogwoods to turn color and drop their leaves prematurely this fall (late summer.)  They too have had enough of this drought!  "We've made as much food as we can this summer, so we're turing in early and leaving things to next year's generation."  While it is not uncommon for these plants to turn earlier than normal, these trees are still much drier than in a normal hot summer.  The need for rainfall is desperate.

    Assuming the return of normal rainfall, your best bet for turf is to vigorously aerate your lawn and apply generous amounts of seed in September in order to re-establish your lawn.  It's hot and dry, but fall will soon bring forth plenty of gardening activities.  Until next week.